


Writing Our Names in the Stars

by PrincessWarrior



Series: Honor of Etheria [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Autistic Entrapta (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Epic best-friends-squad super-bonding space ADVENTURE, Eternia, Etheria - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Lesbian Adora (She-Ra), Lesbian Catra (She-Ra), Melog, Multi, Original planet, Princess Adora (She-Ra), catradora, decolonize the stars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24353764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessWarrior/pseuds/PrincessWarrior
Summary: The Best Friend Squad leaves Etheria to bring magic to the universe! Entrapta joins in the fun to keep the ship running, triangulate threats and determine if the atmosphere on different planets is safe; not because Catra likes her and insisted she tags along. The five of them discover some new friends, some new worlds, and some that are very, very old.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: Honor of Etheria [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758283
Comments: 15
Kudos: 79





	1. Planting New Roots

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've posted in many, many years! I've spent that last few years writing essays. So this might be boring. I apologize. I'm mostly writing for myself but also for anyone who happens to read it! I hope you enjoy, and if not I hope it pushes you to write something better!  
> It's multi-chapter and also part of a post-finale series in which I intend to explore pretty much all of the characters and universe in more depth.  
> I'm intending it to be SFW and rated T, but there are references to sex. As for violence, I want to keep that to a minimum, mostly out of respect for Noelle Stevenson's wish for these characters' lives to be so boring and happy after the finale that no one can ever write a conflict-filled story about them ever again and honestly they all deserve that. This story is more about me imaging more about their character development and watching them go on fun space adventures together :) Everything is based as much in canon as possible.

Prometha. A planet simply massive in scale compared to Etheria, blue with oceans, enveloped in a cloudy atmosphere, encircled by two large moons and orbiting a small sun. Entrapta had set the course upon discovering it in a First Ones’ database on the assumption that such a watery world would be able to disperse magic into the biosphere fairly quickly. Naturally, she needed to collect data on magic dispersal as quickly as possible for the mission to be of any use. Bow, Glimmer, Adora and Catra felt no need to argue. All Adora cared about was bringing magic to the universe, and all the others cared about was seeing the universe and staying by Adora’s side. 

Landing on the planet had been exceptionally easy despite the planet’s higher gravity. Entrapta made a note to study the ship’s programming for automated atmospheric and pressure adjustments. The First Ones must have designed the ship to accommodate for a variety of planetary conditions, but so far it seemed this particular planet had no history of any First Ones. In fact, it appeared to harbour no intelligent life at all. 

After some preliminary exploration of the forest the group landed in, they decided to set up camp in a cozy clearing and get to work. Entrapta busied herself collecting samples and studying the strange new world, muttering into her recorder while Bow stayed with her to keep her from running off into the alien wilderness. Glimmer and Adora got to work setting up a couple of tents and sleeping bags and a campfire. 

Adora returned to the ship to bring out the food supplies and found Catra reclined in the captain’s chair with Melog sprawled on her lap. As soon as she came into the room Melog launched themselves off Catra’s lap and rubbed up against Adora with a purr. 

“You could help us, you know.”

“Yeah, but what fun would that be?” Catra replied coyly. 

Adora came and stood above her with a disapproving scowl. “Catra.” 

“Yes, Adora?”

“You wanted to come.”

“And your point is?”

Adora rolled her eyes and leaned down, her hands on the arms of the chair, and gave Catra a determined smirk. “If you want to stay in my tent tonight, you better bring the dishes and food out for me. Now.”

Catra stared back at Adora for a moment, considering the option. Then, with a winning smirk, “Hmm, I think I’ll just sleep with Entrapta tonight.” 

Adora groaned and stomped off into the cargo bay. Catra rolled her eyes and followed. “All right, all right! I’ll bring the rest out.”

“And wash the dishes when we’re done eating!” 

“What? No way! Deal’s off!”

“It’s not a deal.” Adora turned and grinned at her. “No dishes, no me.”

Catra seethed. She looked at Melog staring back up at her and the alien cat gave a snide trill. “Shut up,” Catra replied as she followed Adora. 

That night, as the sun was setting, the five of them gathered around the clearing. Glimmer held a small tree, a sapling Perfuma had grown for them from a seed of the Heart-Blossom. 

“Are we sure this is going to work?” Bow asked. 

Glimmer gave a shrug. “I’m not even sure what to expect if it does work.”

“So why are we doing this, then?” Catra sneered impatiently. 

“According to my theory, the tree should leech its magic into the ground, and transpire it through its leaves into the atmosphere, thereby introducing magic to its ecosystem! Eventually it will reproduce and populate the area, circulating magic throughout the whole planet, carrying it through the groundwater and making its way to the oceans, where the currents will transport it everywhere!” explained Entrapta in as simple terms as she could. This was not the first time she has had to explain her theory to the same people. 

“And how long will that take? Are we going to be here all week?” Catra replied.

“Oh, it’ll probably take a few decades. We can come back every few years to check up on it.”

“Seriously?” Adora exclaimed. “I was kind of hoping this could just be a snap, you know, kind of like how it happened on Etheria.”

“Etheria has had magic for thousands of years. Possibly longer. And who knows how it came to be that way! What you did was release the magic that Etheria already had. We’re introducing magic to a whole new ecosystem for the very first time! It’s incredible! No one’s ever done it, or at least the First Ones never wrote about doing something like this. They just wrote about taking magic away from planets. I tried reverse engineering those plans but it got complicated with the particle accelerator needing to be powered by hydrogen protons —” Entrapta stopped. “I mean, it’s very difficult. I don’t know how they did it.”

“So should we just plant this tree and see what happens, then?” Bow asked.

Adora picked up the shovel they’d brought from Etheria and drove the spade into the soil. Glimmer knelt next to the hole and set the tree down as Bow knelt beside her with a bucket of water. 

“This water is from this planet. Do you think it’s the same? What if it kills the tree?”

“Of course it’s the same, idiot, it’s water,” Catra scoffed. Adora shot her a scolding look and Catra rolled her eyes. “I mean, sorry. It’s water, genius.”

“Actually, Bow does have a point,” Entrapta said. She leaned over the bucket with a test tube and took a sample of the water. “I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this before.”

Catra slapped her forehead. “How long is  _ this _ going to take?”

“You know, if this is such a problem for you, you didn’t have to come,” Glimmer shot back. 

Catra scowled at her and gave a shrug. “Whatever. I want to be here. Let’s just hurry up before something attacks us.”

“What, are you scared?” Bow snickered.

“I’m not - I’m just saying! We’ve been fighting enough weird aliens and almost dying. I’d just really rather not almost die for a while.”

“You mean fighting weird aliens like Adora?” said Bow with a grin. Glimmer punched his shoulder. 

“Can we please just plant this tree and be friends?” she said. 

“Got it! It’s water.” Entrapta announced. 

Bow poured a gentle stream into the hole. Then he took a handful of the loose dirt and covered the roots. Glimmer took a handful next, then Adora, then Entrapta, and finally Catra. Adora smiled and nudged Catra, winning a shy smile back. The five of them stood and smiled down at the tree they had just transplanted. As they watched, a shimmering green glow shot out from the base of the small trunk and radiated out into the forest. 

“Whoa,” said Bow. “So uh, I think it worked!”

The next morning the five of them awoke to a forest full of birdsong and sunlight. The sky was bright and the sunlight was harsh, but the forest was beautiful. They agreed to stick around the campsite for a few days to make sure the tree would be okay before leaving for the next planet. They had gathered a number of different magical objects from Etheria, including various gemstones and even a few small creatures. Entrapta had considered the risks involved in introducing alien species to other planets, but ultimately decided it was worth it for science. Since the First Ones had successfully colonized so many planets without too much ecological destruction, she decided there shouldn’t be any harm in them bringing new species, either. 

Bow was busy preparing a breakfast of eggs, greens and bacon for the group when Catra heard a twig snap in the trees around them. She and Melog lunged into a defensive posture in front of Adora, claws drawn and teeth bared. 

“Are you okay?” Adora asked. The others were looking at Catra with surprise. 

“You didn’t hear that?” Catra asked. 

“Hear what?” said Glimmer.

“Someone’s there.”

Silence fell over the group, except for the crackling fire and sizzling bacon. Entrapta grabbed Bow’s tracker from its holster at his side and started pushing buttons. 

“Ah! Catra is right! There’s a heat signature coming from … all around us. There are seven people here besides us.”

“Oh no, what do we do?” Glimmer said. 

“Hi!” Bow exclaimed. There was no response. 

“Bow!” Glimmer snapped.

“We don’t mean any harm!” Adora followed.

Glimmer smacked her forehead as Catra rolled her eyes.

They were still met with silence. Slowly a couple of fawn-like faces emerged from the trees.

“Maybe they speak a different language?” Bow guessed with a shrug.

“They’re not attacking,” Catra noticed. She relaxed her posture and took a steady step toward the person a dozen feet in front of her. Melog followed gently beside her as she raised her hand to the person. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

The person backed up and raised their weapon slightly and two others stepped up beside them. 

“Catra! Be careful!” Adora seethed.

Catra looked back at her and smiled. “It’s okay.” She turned back just as one of the people rushed out toward her, weapon raised. 


	2. Seeding New Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stories and tales of two worlds are swapped as new friendships begin. A seed of doubt is planted in Adora's heart about her priorities on her mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first three chapters were originally one really long one because I never know when to stop writing. I decided to break it up and post a chapter or two a week, and will do my ADHD best to be consistent with that until it is complete. That is a very ambitious plan for me because I never really complete anything. At all. Ever. But I like where this story is going so here goes!  
> CW: This chapter alludes pretty blatantly to sex.

Melog withdrew hissing but Catra just gave a surprised shout. Her attacker halted their spear a couple of inches from Catra’s face; it was just a bluff. The others were ready at Catra’s side, but Catra herself remained calm. Seeing this, her attacker lowered their weapon, and the others relaxed as well. They were small people, about Glimmer’s height, quadrupedal and dressed in metal and leather armour with all kinds of adornments and jewelry. Another one of the natives stepped into the clearing behind them and spoke. 

“Who are you? Where did you come from?”

“Oh great!” Entrapta squealed. “They can speak!”

She ran over to the person and started grilling them with questions. “How tall are you? What do you eat here? How long have you lived on this planet? Did your people come from another planet too? Do you have any technology? Robots?”

“Entrapta!” Glimmer yelled.

“Oh, sorry. Hi, I’m Entrapta.”

“I don’t understand. Are you people… are you from another planet?” asked the one who had spoken first. 

“Yeah, we are,” answered Bow. “Don’t worry, we just found out there are other planets like, five months ago, so we're pretty new to this too.”

The person who had attacked Catra spoke next. “So other planets do have life?”

“Yeah. Turns out there are a lot that do,” Catra replied to her. “No one’s ever come here from another planet?”

“No. Not that we’re aware of.”

“Oh! That’s great!” Adora beamed.

“What? Why is that great?” asked the first person. 

“Oh, um, no reason. It’s a long story,” Adora stammered.

“Our planet was just invaded by a huge army of aliens that wanted to destroy the whole universe and our planet was kind of the key to doing that until we stopped them and destroyed the weapon in the centre of our planet,” explained Bow. 

“Nevermind, apparently it’s a really short story,” Adora muttered. 

The people all stared at Bow. 

“Maybe we should all introduce ourselves? I’m Bow, and this is my girlfriend, Glimmer, she’s also the Queen of our kingdom. And this is Entrapta, she’s our tech wizard, and this is Catra, she tried to kill us a bunch of times, and this is Adora! She’s She-ra.”

He set his hands on his hips with a satisfied grin, waiting for the new people to introduce themselves in similar fashion. He was met with more stunned silence.

“Oh, I think I need to sit down,” said the one who had spoken first, sitting down. 

Adora walked carefully over to them and sat next to them. A couple other natives stepped up to their companion’s side protectively. 

“What’s your name?” Adora asked. 

“They call me Leaf. And these two are my children, called Lark and Starling,” Leaf said, gesturing to the two at their side. Then, gesturing to the person who had attacked Catra, “Over there is my soul mate, called Wren.”

Adora swooned and looked at Catra. “Did you hear that?  _ Soul mate _ !”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Yes, very sweet.” She turned back to Wren. “Is your soul mate embarrassing, too?”

Wren snickered. “Endlessly.” 

There were three other people still standing guard in the woods around the clearing. Leaf turned and told them to come closer. One was introduced as Ferne, another as Pod, and the third as Boulder. Ferne was Leaf’s older sibling, and Pod and Boulder were their cousins. They explained their culture, the geography of their region, and explained that people did not explore this world beyond necessity for survival. They couldn’t tell their new guests any more about the world than what they knew about the forest they were in; and they knew pretty much everything there was that could be known about the forest. The forest was once magical, according to ancient lore, but that magic seeped out of the forest through the rivers and was never seen again. No one knew why or how, just that it had happened. 

“Why didn’t you try to find out?” Entrapta asked despairingly. “You could have learned so much about your world!”

“There was no need to leave, our ancestors were forest people. They could survive without magic, and so can we. But we can’t survive without our forest.”

Adora, Glimmer, and Bow exchanged nervous glances and Catra’s eyes darted over to the glowing tree they had planted the day before. 

“Well, GREAT NEWS!” Entrapta exclaimed. “We just brought you all magic!” She beamed at the natives and turned to her friends. Her grin slid away when she saw their guilty faces. “I mean, uuuh, uh oh, was I not supposed to tell them that?”

“You brought magic?” Leaf asked with disbelief.

“How?” asked Starling, beaming. 

“We planted this tree, it’s from our world. Our friend back home grew it from the seed of a magical tree. We didn’t know anyone lived here, we’re really sorry!” Adora explained. 

“This, this is unbelievable,” said Wren. 

A whisper rose among the people and Wren stepped toward the tree. They knelt down beside it, then looked back at their alien guests. “How does it work?”

“We don’t really know, we’ve never actually done this before,” said Bow.

“But we think it will grow and restore magic to your world through the ground,” Glimmer continued.

“Technically, it should respire magic into the atmosphere, too, but the whole process will probably take a long time. Years. Decades. Millennia, even!” Entrapta explained. “We’ll probably never actually see it become like our planet.”

“Why are you doing this?” Ferne asked. 

The group fell silent and looked at Adora. “It was your idea,” Catra quipped.

“Well, I guess, when Horde Prime came so close to destroying everything, I released our own planet’s magic so that everyone can use it. And I just thought, I don’t know. It was my own people who first started taking magic away from every planet they went to. It should be me who brings it back.” 

“What do you mean? What happened to your planet?” Leaf asked. 

“Oh, _ that’s _ a long story,” Bow said. 

Adora began explaining the First Ones who had come to Etheria a thousand years ago, and explained how they had mined planets for magic to power a massive weapon they built in the centre of Etheria. She explained She-Ra, how the First Ones used Etheria’s ancient hero and manipulated her for their own purposes to destroy their enemies. She told them about Horde Prime, Hordak, and the threat the entire universe had very recently faced. She told them how she destroyed the weapon her people had built, and then, with She-ra, destroyed Horde Prime for good. 

“So, you’re a hero, then? You’re not here to destroy anything, or take anything, you’re just here to bring back what was taken from our ancestors?”

“Uh, yeah, I mean, yes? I guess?”

“You are a hero, dummy,” said Catra with a smile. She kissed Adora’s cheek. 

“So does that mean Etheria isn’t your planet, either?” asked Lark.

“What? No, it’s my planet.”

“But you said you weren’t born there.”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t know that until like, a year ago. For all I care, it’s my home.”

“But what planet are you  _ from _ ?” 

“Lark!” Wren barked.

Adora stared at the child, stunned. “I - I don’t know. The First Ones colonized a bunch of planets. I guess I could have been born on any one of them. For all I know I could have been born in space. I don’t think it really matters, does it?”

“It matters if you want to know where your people began. Who your ancestors are. Where  _ your _ story started,” replied Leaf. “For us, it’s really simple. We have lived and died in this land for thousands of years. We can trace our history back thousands of years by the name of every single ancestor, and we know where every single one lies in wait for the next life. But you don’t have that, because your ancestors travelled so much and lost so much of their own history. You can’t trace your story beyond your own life’s memories. Your ancestors are still a part of you, but you’re cut off from them. Doesn’t that matter to you?”

Adora gazed at him until Catra gave her shoulder a gentle shake. 

“Hey, it doesn’t matter. We have each other. That’s all that matters, right?” 

Adora turned to her and smiled. She leaned her head onto Catra’s shoulder. “Right.” 

The group gathered food and settled around a fire with their new friends, sharing tales of Etheria and listening to stories of Prometha. Adora grew tired as the night grew dark. She settled into her sleeping bag a little way from the campfire, yawning as she closed her eyes. She felt a weight on her feet and sat up to find Catra curled up at the base of her sleeping bag. Adora smiled and reached for her girlfriend. 

“Come on, silly, get in here.”

“No, you’ll kick me.”

Catra turned and gave her a playful glare. Adora kicked Catra on the shoulder, rolling her onto the grass. Catra laughed and pounced on top of Adora and her breath hitched as Adora gazed back with half-lidded eyes. Catra’s cheeks burned. 

“Right here? Really?” Adora teased. She grabbed Catra around the waist and rolled over on top of her, kissing her. Catra squealed and squirmed. 

“No! No! Stop! What are you doing?”

“Oh, this isn’t what you wanted?” Adora laughed and wrestled with Catra, trying to kiss her neck. 

Catra squirmed, laughing and trying to push Adora away. 

“Hey! Will you two get a room?” Bow called and Glimmer burst out laughing. 

“Are they newly weds?” Wren asked Glimmer and Bow over the crackling fire. 

“No, they just started sleeping together,” Entrapta replied as she tinkered on Bow’s tracker in an attempt to boost its signal to Etheria. She looked up when she realized everyone was silent and staring at her. “Oh, that’s another thing I wasn’t supposed to say, wasn’t it? You should all tell me these things, you know.” 

Adora and Catra’s faces matched in redness and the two inched away from each other. “Do you want to go back to the ship tonight?” Catra whispered to Adora, and the two slipped away from the camp. 

That night, as they lay in each other’s arms in the crew’s quarters of the ship, Adora started thinking about what Leaf had said of her ancestors. 

“Do you really think it doesn’t matter?” 

Catra gave a soft trill in response as she was lulled from a light sleep. “What doesn’t matter?”

“Where I’m from.”

Catra opened her eyes and looked up into Adora’s. “Why do you want to know so bad?”

“Don’t you ever think about your parents?”

“They left me with Shadow Weaver when I was a baby. Why would I care about them?”

Adora rolled onto her back and gazed up at the ceiling panels above. “What if they never meant to give you up? What if they didn’t have a choice? What if they thought it was the only way you would be safe?”

“Well then they were idiots.”

They lay together in silence as Catra watched Adora, gently running her fingers along Adora’s arm. 

“You want to find out who your parents were, don’t you?” Catra asked. 

“What if they’re still alive?”

“They abandoned you to become a weapon to destroy the whole universe! If they are still alive, do you really want to meet them?”

Adora thought for a moment and turned back to Catra. “I think I do.”

Catra groaned. “I can’t believe I’m surprised. Of course you do. My girlfriend, ever the optimist! Just kill me.”

Adora pulled Catra close. “You mean your  _ soul mate _ .”

Catra smiled in spite of herself. “You’re such a cheese ball. Why am I with you?”

“Because I’m great in bed.”

“Because you can turn into She-Ra and I just like looking at her arms.”

Adora snickered. “Really?”

“Maybe.”

“So all that time we were fighting, were you secretly checking out She-ra’s arms?”

“Maybe.”

“Hmm. I think I can work with that.” 

Catra gave a surprised wail that turned into laughter as Adora’s eyes flashed and she transformed into She-ra. 

“Seriously?” Catra laughed.

“Why not?” 

“Is this like, cheating, or is it a threesome, or what? How does this even work? Look, now I have to undress you again!” 


	3. The Syphon System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a couple of their new friends in tow, the group races off to explore more of this new planet and find some answers to Adora's questions. Instead of answers, they find even more questions.

The smell of frying grease and meat welcomed Catra and Adora when they returned to the camp the next morning. Bow and Glimmer gave them knowing looks that turned Adora’s face a deep shade of red. 

“And where did you guys sneak off to last night?” Bow asked in a parental tone. 

“We just needed to talk,” Adora replied.

“Right,” Glimmer sneered.

“We did” said Catra. “About Adora’s parents. She wants to go find out where she’s from.”

Adora stopped and stared at Catra. 

“Well you do, don’t you? So let’s go. We brought magic to this planet. Now let’s go bring magic to another First One’s colony and look for like, clues or whatever you losers do on a mission.”

Adora walked up to Catra and held her hands. “Really?”

Catra smiled back tenderly. “Yeah, dummy. It’s important to you, so it’s important to me.”

Tears formed in Adora’s eyes and she wrapped her arms around Catra. Glimmer and Bow exchanged curious glances.

“Actually, there is First One’s tech on Prometha,” Entrapta announced. She sat by the campfire with the tracker. Next to her was a plate of bacon rolled up and pinned together to look like a tiny pig.

“Really?” Bow dashed over and sat next to Entrapta. “Oh no way! She’s right!”

“Of course I’m right. Data doesn’t lie.”

“Hey wait, where are Leaf and their family?” Adora asked, looking around the campsite.

“They went back to their village after you guys left,” Glimmer replied. “They wanted to tell their people about us.”

“Should we wait to tell them we’re leaving?” Adora asked.

“They’re not going to bring their whole village to meet us, are they?” Catra groaned. “I don’t think I can handle another painfully awkward round of introductions.”

“Maybe we can leave a note!” Bow suggested.

“How far is this tech, Entrapta?” Adora asked.

“Oh, not far. It’s only about … wait, nevermind, the scale here is way different than Etheria, this planet is _huge_. It’s probably a good three hours by Darla, unless we go into orbit and fly there from space.”

Glimmer stood up. “All right. Let’s do a vote. Who thinks we should stay and tell the Promethans we’re leaving?”

Glimmer and Bow raised their hands. They put their hands down.

“I am the Queen, you know. I could just order everyone to stay.”

“But you’re not gonna,” Adora sneered. “Okay. Let’s pack up. Bow, you can leave a note if you want. We should probably water the tree once more, and maybe like, I don’t know, wish it good luck?”

“You’re such an idiot,” Catra muttered.

Everyone got to work rolling up sleeping bags and breaking down the camp. Suddenly they heard a familiar voice from the trees.

“You’re leaving?”

Lark and Starling emerged into the clearing. Behind them was Ferne and Wren with a crowd of people they hadn’t met. Catra smacked her forehead with a groan.

“What? Us? No!” Adora dropped her sleeping bag and started flattening it. “We were just rearranging our camp! We like to, you know, change our perspective?”

“How am I in love with you?” Catra growled.

Glimmer stepped over Adora’s sleeping bag and walked up to Lark and Starling. “We found some information about something our idiot friend is looking for. It wasn’t why we came here, but since it happens to be here we thought we’d go take a look.”

“What is it?” Starling asked, as Wren, Ferne, and about ten other villagers gathered around them.

“It’s about what your parent, Leaf, said to me yesterday, about my ancestors,” Adora replied.

“They came here?” asked Wren.

Adora nodded. “We think so. We just found out.”

“Where?” Ferne said as Bow came up to them with the tracker. Ferne leaned closer to take a look at the screen.

“Here. It’s really far away from your forest. We’ll have to fly there.”

Wren and Ferne turned to the people gathered around them. They almost seemed able to communicate without words as a silence fell over them for a moment. Then Wren nodded and turned back to their guests.

“Ferne and I will go with you.”

“What? Why?” asked Glimmer.

“You brought magic back to our world without even knowing anyone was here. You gave us more than we ever would have known to ask. We wish to help you in your mission here. To return the favour,” explained Ferne.

“Wow. Thank you. Are you sure, though? Leaf said no one ever leaves their homes, here,” said Bow.

“We are sure. We spoke with the others. They agreed the two of us should go.”

“Wait, when? How?” asked Catra.

“Just now,” Wren replied as if it were obvious.

Entrapta ran up to Wren and stared at them.

“I get it! You communicate telepathically, don’t you! Tell me how you do it! I need to know!”

“What do you mean? You can’t?” Wren asked.

Everyone shook their heads no.

“Kind of wish we could, though,” Catra muttered snidely, glancing at Adora. Adora gave a sly smile back.

“Leaf says they wish to know what happened, who took magic from our planet and why. We have an opportunity to travel safely beyond our forest to learn. If you will have us, we would like to go with you,” Wren explained.

“See, I told you we should have just waited for them,” Glimmer grumbled.

“It’s settled then! Let’s go back to Darla!” Adora exclaimed.

“Wait, who is Darla?” Ferne asked.

“Oh, Darla’s our ship!” Entrapta yelled as the group turned back into the woods.

  
Ferne and Wren bid their family and friends their farewells, promising to return soon. Wren hugged their children and the two followed their alien guests into the woods. The ship was a short walk up a steep cliff, settled on a clear plateau overlooking the forest. When they reached it Ferne and Wren halted. Adora opened the door and the ramp slid down to the ground. She and Catra gave their new guests a moment to take the sight in. Ferne and wren exchanged a quick glance and nodded to each other before stepping onto the ramp.

“They’re pretty trusting,” Catra muttered to Adora once they were out of ear shot.

“They’ve probably never had any reason not to be.”

“Good thing it was us who came here first and not the Horde.”

Ferne and Wren were glued to the window of the cockpit, a look of incredulous horror on their faces as the ship peeled upward toward the blue sky. Stars appeared as they entered the mesosphere and levelled out with the planet’s surface.

“The stars!” said Wren. “They’re still here?”

“Of course they are. Where would they go?” asked Entrapta.

“When the sun rises, she banishes them away into the Void,” replied Ferne. “Or at least, that’s what we believed.”

“There’s probably a lot of things you’re going to learn about your world on this trip,” said Bow. “It might change the way you understand things.”

“That’s why we came,” Wren replied. They swallowed. “We decided we should know more about the world. I just didn’t think we could have been so wrong. This doesn’t make any sense.”  
Entrapta announced the time for descent and Adora commanded the ship downward. As the bow dipped down, the curvature of the planet came into view. Ferne and Wren watched in amazement as an entirely different world appeared below them. Everything was blue.

“Huh, says here on the map there should be land below us. That’s strange,” Entrapta muttered.

“Maybe the First One’s maps are outdated,” Glimmer guessed.

“But that’s a lot of water. A whole ocean can’t possibly form that fast! That goes against every geomorphological model! It takes millions of years for that amount of —”

"Well, it looks like data _does_ lie," sneered Catra.

As the world rose closer before them they could see the shimmer of the sun’s reflection on the water. The whole crew got up and stared out the window. Small islands came into view - thousands of them. As they drew within a few hundred feet they could see the islands were not naturally formed, but crystalline and perfectly cut with platforms and vertical towers.

“They’re cities,” Adora murmured in disbelief.

“There’s a pattern to them!” Entrapta announced. "It’s a massive fractal, see how the pattern repeats as we get closer?”

Bow’s eyes narrowed. “Um, no.”

“It’s a system! I wonder what it all is!” Entrapta wheeled around to Adora. “We have to fly over all of it and see where the centre is!”

“The… centre?” Glimmer asked.

“They’re all radiating out from somewhere, but it’s hard to determine exactly where. We need to fly back up!”

“Wait, look!” Catra announced, pointing below.

Everyone turned to see what she was pointing at. As they descended closer to the towers they could see a whirling distortion radiating between the towers from one island to the next, with beads of light flowing along.

“It’s magic,” Adora whispered.

“Land. We need to get down there and find out what’s going on,” Bow announced.

Adora raced back over to the pilot’s chair and arched the ship down to the nearest island. She settled the ship on the highest plateau and the crew gathered in the shuttle’s cargo bay. Adora turned to their guests.

“Maybe you two should stay here, it might not be safe.”

“I’ll stay with them,” Bow volunteered. “Radio me if it’s safe. Or, you know, if you need backup.”

“I really hope that doesn’t happen.”

With Melog, Catra, Glimmer, and Entrapta at her side, Adora opened the shuttle door and the five of them stepped out onto the crystal island. The sun shone fiercely. With nothing to shade them and its rays reflected by everything around them, the heat and light was nearly too much.

“Remind me never to go to a planet with a sun again,” Catra seethed.

“This is bad, the albedo alone is enough to cause permanent damage here, but we’re exposed to direct sunlight on top of that. We need to get inside!” Entrapta announced as she raced to the angular doorway of the tower ahead of them.

The door was engraved with elaborate, angular lines and geometric shapes much like every First Ones ruin on Etheria. Adora stepped up to the door and studied the shapes and lines.

“Syphon,” she said with hesitation, and the door slid open. A dark hallway appeared in front of them and they stepped inside.

“Syphon?” Glimmer asked as the door slid shut behind them with an echoing bang. She raised her hand and a small glow emerged, illuminating a small radius around the group. “There’s not enough magic here on this planet.”

“For the honor of grayskull!” Adora roared, her voice bouncing boldly against the crystal walls. Her transformation shed enough light in the hall to make out its size and the designs covering the walls and ceiling. A distinct channel had been carved into the middle of the walls on both sides of them, running horizontally along hallway before angling upward into the ceiling. Another door stood at the end of the hall with an engraving of a sun surrounded by lines and shapes.

“Prometha,” Adora read and the second door slid open. Adora shrugged at her friends. Before them now stood a large, spiralling staircase leading up the tower.

A shiver ran up Catra’s back and she and Melog hesitated as the others started ascending the stairs. Catra looked back down the hall and exchanged a glance with Melog before following the group. “I don’t like this either,” she whispered to her companion.

The tower rose several floors and Adora decided they would investigate from the top down. The top would likely be the location of a control room if there was one. Glimmer walked with Entrapta’s arm in hand after the inventor tried breaking off from the group to investigate the first door they passed on the second floor.

“But there is so much more to this whole structure!” Entrapta had whined. “And this is just one tower! We need to know what’s under the surface of the water, too! How deep do these structures go?”

No one answered the princess’s clearly rhetorical questions. Ten flights of stairs later and with tired lungs, they reached a short, narrow landing with a single door.

“Eternia!” Adora shouted excitedly and the door shot open.

“Have you noticed how none of the engravings here are of She-ra?” Glimmer asked hesitantly.

“Huh, you’re right,” Adored mused.

“Oh, wow, so you’re not the centre of the universe after all!” Catra quipped, earning a glare from her girlfriend.

They stepped into the room and the engravings in the walls immediately began to glow, illuminating the whole room. It was a small room with consoles lining three of the four walls. The ceiling was low and angled up into the point of a prism.

“We’re in the very top!” Entrapta announced gleefully. “And look at all the tech and computers!”

She raced to what was clearly the main terminal; a huge computer monitor surrounded by smaller monitors, and a large control panel and keyboard on the console. The machines were dark. Entrapta started pressing buttons in an attempt to turn the systems on when Glimmer raced over and grabbed her hand with a stern glare.

Adora, still in her She-ra form, stepped up beside the two and gazed at the console. Engravings lined the controls of the console, but there were no words written on it, no clues as to how to turn the systems on.

“She-ra,” said Adora. Nothing.

“Eternia,” she followed, still with no response from the system. Catra snickered.

“Prometha!”

The computer remained dark and Adora groaned. “Come on! Give me something!” She slammed her fist on the console, unintentionally hitting what appeared to be a square of material different from the rest of the console. She gazed at it as the others ruminated over what the console was for. She placed her hand palm-down on the square and all of the monitors in the room lit up. Lights flickered on all over the consoles and a hologram of a man beamed up in the centre of the room, right next to Catra. Catra gave a scream, her tail puffed up.

“Greetings, Guest. How may I be of assistance?”

“Uh, hi?” Adora responded, recoiling from the hologram. She straighted up and cleared her throat. “What is this place?”

“Query, ‘what is this place’” not recognized. How may I be of assistance?”

Adora groaned and Catra laughed. Entrapta walked up to the hologram and reached out to touch it. Catra slapped her hand down.

“Trust me, princess, that is a terrible idea.”

Adora stepped up to the hologram and took a deep, calming breath. “Tell me about this tower.”

“This tower is the administrative communication centre of Syphon 832-G-9, Guest. May I be of further assistance?”

“Why are you calling me ‘Guest’?”

“Query, ‘why are you calling me guest?’ not recognized. How may I be of assistance?”

Adora’s eyebrows twitched. “What is a guest?”

“A guest is an unauthorized user. Guest privileges include access to basic queries and non-administrative controls. May I be of further assistance?”

“What non-administrative controls are there?” Adora continued.

“Non-administrative controls include non-classified database search, communication with Eternia command outpost Bravado; and distribution of emergency first-aid and rations.”

“So, no spiders?” Glimmer asked.

“Query, ‘no spiders’ not recognized. May I be of further assistance?”

“Yes, I want to know what the purpose is of this building?”

“This tower is the administrative communication centre of Syphon 832-G-9. May I be of further assistance?”

Catra slapped her forehead. “At least the First Ones were consistent with making the stupidest holograms they possibly could.”

“Query, ‘at least the First Ones were con —”

“We get it! Stop!” Adora shouted.

“Would you like to sign off, Guest?”

“No! I want to know what Syphon 832-G… um.”

“Nine,” Entrapta whispered.

“What is Syphon 832-G-9?” Adora finished.

“Syphon 832-G-9 is a standard capacitor hub in the Prometha Renewable Syphon system. May I be of further assistance?”

Catra rolled her eyes. “This guy is getting really annoying.”

“Hey Adora, he kind of looks like you,” Glimmer noted.

Adora looked at the hologram more closely.

“Query, ‘this guy is getting really —’”

“Stop!” snapped Adora. “End query?”

“It has been a pleasure to be of assistance, Guest,” said the hologram before flickering away.

“That was so fascinating!” Entrapta beamed. “Can you try to get administrator access? I’m sure there’s a way we can hack into the system and grant you special status, you are She-ra after all. Why are you considered a guest here?”

“Because this isn’t Etheria.”

Everyone turned with surprise to Glimmer. She gave a shrug. “It’s just a guess, but maybe this place just didn’t have anything to do with She-Ra.”

Catra gave another chuckle. “How’s it feel to be just another normal person, Adora?”

Adora rolled her eyes and released She-ra, transforming back into Adora. She leaned against the main console next to Entrapta, who was gleefully typing away on the console.

“You really think the hologram guy looked like me?” Adora asked Glimmer.

“Well, a little. Like, the real you, not She-ra.”

“How so?”

Catra settled next to Adora and leaned her head against Adora’s cheek with a smile. "Tall, bright eyes, _dashing_ _ly_ cute smile and a total idiot. Who knows, maybe you’re related to a hologram! It wouldn’t be any weirder than anything else about you.”

She laughed her high-pitched laugh as Adora rolled her eyes and gave her a gentle shove. Adora was silent for a moment.

“The security in this place is so lax compared to anything on Etheria. It doesn’t make sense. Why aren’t there any elementals? Why are guests offered food instead of murder spiders?”

“Probably because this planet isn't a giant weapon,” Entrapta replied, her eyes still glued to the large monitor. “It’s an energy production facility! This whole system of islands is a massive circuit board!”

Her eyes were glittering with excitement. The others turned to look at the screen. On it was a map of the whole system, made up of hubs of islands in concentric patterns that repeated at different scales, from a single island, to units of several islands, to the whole system itself.

“You see? There are different types of islands. Some are really tall, like this one, with only a few large chambers that reach far below the ocean's surface, probably even to the very bottom! We landed on top of one of the higher chambers. I think that’s where energy is being stored before it gets channelled to the next island in the chain, which I think would be a transistor in this particular island unit! It all gets cycled through toward the centre, and see? There’s a beam of energy here where it’s being transferred somewhere else, probably another planet. Maybe even Eternia!”

“I don’t understand, has this been going on all this time?” Adora asked.

“Nope, it just started a few days ago. Seems the whole system had been shut down for centuries.”

The group stared at Entrapta.

“I think we reactivated the system when we planted that tree!” She grinned.

“So where is the energy going? _What did we just do_?” said Glimmer.

Entrapta hammered at the console for a few minutes, muttering as she did so. Then she stopped. “Oh no.”

Adora slammed her hands on the console. “Oh no? What do you mean, ‘oh no’?” Entrapta stared at the monitor. “Entrapta!”

“Well, we turned this planet’s system back on by reintroducing a steady stream of magic. Apparently, I was wrong about how long it would take for the magic to flow into the planet’s ecosystems.”

“And? What’s ‘oh no’ about that?” Catra asked. Melog gave a worried mew and backed away from the group, eyeing the exit.

“Well, we turned this planet back on, but we didn’t turn on the other side of the system. When the First Ones were here running this processing plant, there were others at the receiving end. But, now we just have the sending side running, and no where to send all of the energy.”

“And what does that mean?” Catra growled.

“It means the system will be overloaded,” Adora surmised.

“Exactly! Adora gets it! Unless we can somehow activate the receiving system, this system will keep storing energy until it reaches capacity, and then, well. We won’t want to be here when that happens.”

“The planet is going to blow up, isn’t it?” Glimmer asked dejectedly.

“Yep, pretty much,” replied Entrapta.

Adora groaned and started pacing. “Of course this is what happens. Of course I ruin everything trying to fix everything! Why can’t anything just be easy!”

“So how do we turn it off?” Glimmer asked Entrapta.

“Well, either we get rid of the tree, or we find out where the energy is going and turn that system back on, too.”

“We’re not getting rid of the tree!” Adora announced. “I didn’t come all this way to _not_ bring magic back to the universe.”

The others gazed at Adora, a mix of apprehension and excitement in each of their eyes. Catra sighed.

“Fine. Okay. I don’t care where you go. I’m going with you.” Adora smiled and walked over to her, folding her arms around her. “Just don’t get killed,” Catra said, nuzzling her face into Adora’s neck.

“And please don’t get any of us killed, if you can help it,” Glimmer added, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

Adora placed her hand on the square to power the system down. Suddenly the hologram burst back into the centre of the room.

“Administrator detected. Welcome, Princess Adora.”


	4. Root Access

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The situation on Prometha goes from bad to worse when a call from Etheria forces Bow and Glimmer to return home early. Catra teaches Adora a lesson in letting others do the dirty work - a reminder for a Adora to lean on the strengths of her friends in times of peril.

“The Queen was right here, all along!” Bow beamed.

“Whoa, no way!” Wren squealed, grabbing the card from Bow’s hand.

“So, this is magic?” asked Ferne.

“Yup! Well, it's my version of magic. You should see what Glimmer and Adora can do! Maybe one day when all of the magic spreads through your planet, we can come back and show you. Or! Maybe you guys will be able to use magic yourselves! Wouldn’t that be cool?”

“I can’t even imagine what that would be like. What does magic do?” Wren asked.

“Well, Glimmer can teleport and shoot sparkle blasts and make balls of light, and lots of other really awesome things,” he said, with a slight gush in his voice. “And Adora can turn into She-ra, who is a really tall, shiny, magical woman with super strength, and she has a magical sword that she can turn into pretty much anything. And the other princesses have other powers, too, like Perfuma who can make plants and roots grow and use them to fight and make things; and Frosta, who can make ice,” Bow continued gushing about his friends’ magical powers.

“What about Catra? What can she do?” Wren asked, clearly enamoured.

“Oh, Catra just has claws. She’s not magical, kind of like me,” said Bow.

“What did she do in your war with Bored Prime?”

“Horde Prime. And, well, mostly she uh, tried to kill us, actually.” He saw the look of confusion and worry in his new friends’ eyes. “But don’t worry! Catra’s good now, I promise!”

Wren and Ferne exchanged looks and Bow wondered if the two were communicating. He gave a nervous laugh.

“So what about you? What do you guys do with enemies after you defeat them?” he asked.

“Enemies? Oh, we’ve never had any kind of war like what you have had on Etheria,” replied Ferne.

“Seriously? No war? Like, ever?”

“No. Our villages trade among each other and we wed between villages, and sometimes outsiders pass through our forest. Now and then we even have to move our villages if we feel endangered, but we’ve never had anything like a war,” Ferne explained. “I don’t know what we would do if someone ever tried to kill any of us.”

“We might cast them out. That is what the sun teaches us,” added Wren.

“What do you mean?” Bow asked.

“Every night, the stars come out to dance in the sky. When they’ve stayed out long enough and taken more of the sky than they need, the sun casts them away again into the Void. We believe that we must not take any more than what can be freely given, and it seems our belief is shared among everyone who has ever passed through our forests. We are taught by our ancestors that if we harm another by taking too much, we, too, will be cast out. The stars are the souls of all those who have done this. The sun teaches them how to live in balance with the world, and if they learn, they will return to us.”  
  
Bow gazed at Wren with a look of amazement. “That sounds so cool! I guess that's like Catra, then. She tried to take too much from us, but she learned, so we let her join us.” 

Just then he heard Glimmer’s voice in his earbud.

“Bow! Come in here quick! You have to see this!”

“Glimmer?” Bow placed his hand over the earbud. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine! It’s completely safe, there are no elementals or monsters or anything! Bring Ferne and Wren and get up here! The passwords are _Syphon_ , _Prometha_ , and _Eternia_ , in that order!”

Bow led Ferne and Wren up the tower to the top room and when he gave the last password the door slid open to reveal his friends gathered around a blue hologram of a man.

“Bow! Check this out!” Glimmer squealed, taking his hand and leading him inside. Ferne and Wren stood cautiously by the door. “Adora, make him say it again!” Glimmer beamed.

“Uh, I don’t know how.”

“What is going on?” Bow asked, warily watching the hologram. “Who is he? He doesn’t look like the other First One’s holograms from Etheria. Is he supposed to be a real person like Mara?”

“I don’t know,” replied Adora. “But when I first activated it, I was She-ra, and he said I was unauthorized. Then I activated him again as me, and he said I was an administrator.”

“O-okay,” Bow questioned. “So he doesn’t know who She-ra is. That’s why you called us up here?”

“No! Adora, you missed the most important part. He called her ‘Princess Adora’!” Glimmer exclaimed.

“Yeah. We know that.”

“Don’t you get it? He didn’t know who _She-ra_ was, and She-ra is what makes Adora a princess. At least, _to us_. But he _knew Adora_ and called Adora a princess!”

“Right,” Bow drawled. "I'm sure that's really exciting, Glimmer, but I'm having a hard time seeing how. Adora is recognized by pretty much every First One's tech she finds." Glimmer's face fell dejectedly and Bow placed a hand on her shoulder with a smile. "Did you find out what this place is?”

“Yes!” Entrapta announced. She ran back over to the console. “Bow, you’re going to _love_ this! Also, you’re going to hate it.”

She rebooted the terminal and accessed the map she’d pulled up before, explaining everything about the fractal Syphon Renewable Energy System and the impending disaster. As soon as she mentioned the planet blowing up Ferne and Wren gave a cry. Adora turned to them.

“Don’t worry, we’ll stop it! I promise.”

“How?” Wren asked, horrified. “Did you do this?”

“No! I mean, I -” Adora stopped. Her shoulders sank. Catra reached for her hand and she pulled it back, turning away from the group. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to help.”

“We have to get back to our family,” said Ferne. “We have to tell them what has happened.”

“We’ll take you back, and then we have to put a stop to this,” Bow said with determination. He turned to Entrapta. “Entrapta, stay here with Glimmer and Catra. Adora and I will take Ferne and Wren back home. Figure out where the magic is supposed to be channelled! We’ll leave as soon as we get back to you.”

Adora and Bow led their new friends back down the tower to the ship. As Adora settled into the pilot’s chair Bow’s tracker pad started chiming. A call from Etheria was coming in from Spinnerella. Adora waited to take off as Bow accepted the call.

“Bow, where is Queen Glimmer?” asked Spinnerella.

“She’s kind of busy at the moment. Why? Is everything all right?” Bow asked.

“No! The Horde - or, what used to be the Horde - they’re fighting, a faction broke off and is fighting for control of the Fright Zone again! They’ve taken a town!”

“What?!” Bow exclaimed. “Seriously?! Please tell me you’re joking Spinnerella, we really do not need this right now!”

“We’ve done everything we can to keep the peace, Bow, but this is beyond any of us. Etheria needs its Queen! We need Glimmer.”

Bow looked up pleadingly at Adora. They stared at each other in horror.

“Okay. Bow, we’re going to take Ferne and Wren home. Then we’ll come back for Glimmer.”

“And what about this planet?! We can’t just let it blow up!”

“Wait, what!?” came Spinnerella’s voice.

“Ah, nothing! A lot of things. There’s too much to explain, I’ll tell you when we get back to Etheria,” Bow said with a nervous laugh.

Adora got up and walked over to Bow. She put her hand on his shoulder, then took the tracker pad.

“Spinnerella, Bow and Glimmer will be back to help you in a few days, I promise. Can you hold out that long?”

“Yes, I think so. Netossa’s gone to the Fright Zone with Scorpia to try to broker a peace treaty. I have a feeling it’s not going to work, but it’ll take a few days for them to get there anyway.”

“Okay. Keep in contact with Bow.” Adora turned to Bow. “Entrapta will take you back to Etheria and drop you off there. Catra and I will stay and try to figure out what’s going on here, hopefully this planet will last that long. We’ll take care of it.” She gave his shoulder a squeeze but he could hear the fear in her voice.

“Do we have enough time?” he asked.

“Not if we don’t go now.” Adora turned and walked over to Ferne and Wren. “I am so sorry for all of this. I promise you, I never meant for any of this to happen, but we’re going to bring you home and then we’re going to save your planet.”

The ship shot up into the mesosphere and descended again back to the cliff they had first landed on. They bid their new friends a very quick farewell and launched back to the Syphon System. When they returned to the communications room Adora ran straight to the hologram.

“Welcome back, Princess Adora. It is a pleasure to s—”

“Do you have any emergency fuel stores?” Adora said, cutting the hologram off.

“There is a store of thulite in the supply hold in Syphon 1226-T-2, Row 14, Bin 6 though 82. May I be of further assistance?” the hologram replied.

“Great, where is that?” Adora demanded.

“Adora, what’s going on?” Glimmer asked.

“Syphon 1226-T-2 is located in sector 4 of the Pre-processing lobe. May I be of further assistance?”

“Where is that?!” roared Adora. Catra slid her hand in Adora’s, concern written on her face.

“I can probably map the location for you,” Entrapta said from the main terminal. She keyed the location the hologram had supplied into the console and an island across the archipelago flashed with a red circle. “Got it!”

“Adora, Bow, what is going on?” Glimmer demanded.

Bow and Adora exchanged exasperated looks. “A lot,” supplied Bow.

“As soon as we got to the ship, Spinnerella called from Etheria,” Adora began.

“Oh, great! My signal boost worked! Can I call Hordak?” Entrapta beamed.

Adora looked at her nervously. “Entrapta, we need you to take Bow and Glimmer back to Etheria.”

“What?” exclaimed Glimmer and Catra simultaneously.

“What do you mean? What’s happening?” Glimmer pleaded.

“And what about you and I? This planet’s going to blow!” said Catra, Melog hissing at her side.

Adora sighed. Bow set a hand on her shoulder and spoke. “Spinnerella says the Horde has broken up, they’re at war with each other and some of them are threatening to retake the Fright Zone. She said she, Netossa, and the other Princesses have tried brokering peace but they need you, Glimmer. This can’t wait.”

“Um, neither can the exploding planet you’re apparently going to leave Adora and I on!”

“We can figure this out, Catra. We’ve been in worse situations,” said Adora with a false confidence.

“Yeah, when you were on a planet that actually cared that you’re She-ra! What can either of us do?”

Adora fell silent. Finally, she spoke. “We can’t just let these people die because of me, Catra. I have to try.”

Catra stared at her incredulously. Then she gave a sigh and shook her head. She took Adora’s hand, her gaze cast down to the ground. Adora gave her hand a loving squeeze.

“So you’ll stay with me?”

“I told you not to get yourself killed, Adora,” Catra grumbled. She was choking back tears. She leaned into Adora’s arms. “You’re such an idiot. Of course I’m staying with you.”

“All right,” said Bow, urgently. “Entrapta, figure out as much as you can about this whole Syphon system, find out where it connects, and give as much information as you can to Adora and Catra. Make _sure_ you explain it so they can understand?”

Entrapta gave a confident nod and set to work finding out how long they all had before the planet would be destroyed.

“Good. Glimmer, let’s go get that thulite.”

Three hours later, Entrapta joined Bow and Glimmer and took off for Etheria in the ship. Adora and Catra remained in the communication room. Adora typed away on the console, scouring a database Entrapta had helped her locate and navigate. Catra lay with Melog in the centre of the room next to the hologram, staring unenthusiastically up at its unmoving, translucent blue form.

“Who do you think this guy is?” Catra asked.

“Query, ‘who do you think this guy is,’ not recognized. May I be of further assistance?”

“No,” Catra replied dryly.

“I don’t know, Catra,” Adora replied. “There’s so much data in this system, most of it doesn’t make any sense. A lot of it is just boring logs about people’s shifts.”

She scrolled down to the bottom of the current database and stopped. The last entry was her own, next to a date. She scrolled back up to the top.

“Catra.” Catra’s ears perked up and Melog lifted their head to turn to Adora. “Catra, come here.”

Catra gave a sigh before she sprang up and sauntered lazily to Adora’s side. On the screen where Adora was pointing were arrays of meaningless, garbled lines and shapes. “What am I looking at?”

Adora withdrew her finger, remembering only she could read the First One’s writing system. "This is a database of shift logs. Right here is my entry from today, and this—” She scrolled back up to the top, a process that took several minutes. The two bickered until Adora finally reached the top. “Here. This is the first entry in this record. It dates back over five thousand years.”

Catra’s ear twitched but her expression remained flat. “So the First Ones were around for a long time. So what? Big deal.”

“Check this out, too.” Adora scrolled back down to the last records. “There’s the third-last an entry from over a thousand years ago here, before the First Ones disappeared. But there’s another entry before mine from twenty years ago.”

She turned to Catra, eyes wide with wonder. Catra stared at the scribbled writing system. She could see a grin spreading on Adora’s face in her peripheral vision.

“Catra, there are still First Ones somewhere out there!”

“What was their name?” Catra asked.

Adora looked back at the second-last entry and squinted. “Randor. The one before that is — no!”

“What?”

Adora stared at the letters of the third-last login entry. “It says ‘Light Hope’. And look, her name appears a bunch of times over the centuries before this.”

“Okay. So, what does that mean?” Catra asked.

Suddenly the hologram spoke behind them.

“Light Hope was an artificial intelligence program with top administrator clearance, Administrator. Light Hope was in charge of various projects for the Eternian Empire, as well as routing necessary magical energy to power these projects.”

Adora whirled around and walked up to the hologram. “Tell me more about Light Hope. What projects was she routing energy for?”

“Many highly-classified projects, such as the Dreamstone Project, Project Grayskull, and the Heart of Etheria project. May I be of further assistance?”

Catra and Adora exchanged curious looks. “What did she do the last time she logged into this system?” Adora asked.

“I am sorry, I do not have this information. You may access the system database for this query, Administrator.”

Adora grumbled and went back to the terminal. “I have no idea how all of these databases work.”

An hour later, Adora had still gotten no where with the system. She’d found records of known planets, asteroids, comets, and various anomalies in the known universe. She even found records of employee sick days. Navigating the system was a lot more complicated than Entrapta had made it seem, and she still didn’t really understand the commands she was supposed to type into the system. The responses the terminal gave her often mimicked those of the First One’s holograms.

Finally she threw her arms into the air and gave an exasperated yell, waking Catra and Melog up from their nap. “I give up!”

“Did you find anything out about where this planet’s magic is going?” Catra asked, stretching with a lazy yawn.

“No. I don’t think so. There’s something here about ‘command outpost Bravado,’ but there’s nothing else about what that is.”

“Maybe that’s where all the magic is going.” Catra leaned against the console and stared lovingly at Adora.

Adora glanced at her for a moment, then realizing the look on her girlfriend’s face, she turned to her. He cheeks burned. “What?”

“You’re really cute when you’re frustrated, you know that?”

“Catra, this isn’t the time.”

Catra rolled her eyes and batted Adora’s shoulder with her tail. “You heard Entrapta. We have a good month before this place blows. She’ll be back by then, and she can figure this out. Why don’t you try to relax?”

Adora did her best to ignore Catra, who was now gently drumming the tip of her tail against Adora’s cheek. Adora mindlessly swiped her tail away and Catra went right back to patting her cheek with it, a playful smirk on her face.

“Catra.” Adora’s eyes were glued to the screen, her face growing more and more irritated. “Catra!”

Tears welled up in Adora’s face and she stopped typing. She stared at the screen and Catra followed her gaze. “What? What is it?”

“I can’t do this, Catra.”

Catra looked back at Adora and pulled her into an embrace. “Hey, it’ll be okay. You don’t have to fix everything, Adora. Let someone else save the world for once. Please.”

“This is my fault.”

“Shh, hey,” Catra leaned back to look Adora in the eyes. “It is not your fault, Adora. Stop doing this to yourself.”

Tears streamed down Adora’s face. “How is it not? It’s my fault this whole thing happened, I’m the one who insisted on this stupid mission! I’m just like them!” She waved a hand to the hologram standing statue-like in the centre of the room.

“No,” replied Catra, firmly. “You’re not.”

“I am, I came to this place I don’t belong, and I brought something that doesn’t belong here, and now this whole planet is going to be destroyed! And this—” she waved now to the screen full of logs of her ancestors’ names. “This is my legacy. This is where I come from, Catra. _This_ is what I am, _I’m a destroyer_ , just like they were.”

“Stop it!”

Catra pressed her hands on Adora’s cheeks, forcing her to look at her. “You are not a destroyer, Adora. _They_ were. You are not _them_. It doesn’t _matter_ what kind of people you come from, remember?” Catra planted a kiss on Adora’s lips and wrapped her arms and tail around her. “I didn’t fall in love with a destroyer, Adora. I fell in love with a hero, and as much as I like to tease you for it, _that_ is who you are. You wanted to bring something beautiful to this place, something that was taken away from it. You always want to _give_ , Adora, and your ancestors, your birth family, they wanted to _take_. That is not who you are, and you know that.”

Adora was shaking in Catra’s arms. “So what do I do?”

“You wait for Entrapta to come back and let her solve the problem. Because this is what Entrapta is good at. Smashing things with a sword, that’s your thing,” Catra said with a smile.

“I can’t just make other people clean up my mess, Catra.”

“Why not?” Adora gave Catra a scornful look and Catra rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not saying being the bad guy was good, but there are some good things I learned by making other people do my dirty work for me.” Catra leaned back against the console, still holding Adora. “If someone else is better than you at something, you should get them do it for you. Maybe I went about that the wrong way and all, but you've always done that too. You just, you know, asked people _nicely_ or whatever." Adora smiled and nuzzled her head against Catra's. "Besides," Catra continued, "do you really think Entrapta is going to be offended if you ask her to figure out a science problem?”

Adora laughed. “As long as her calculations were correct about us having a month, then, maybe you’re right. Maybe I can’t do this and, maybe that’s okay?”

“It’s totally okay. Now, what do you say we dig around this place and see what other classified secrets the First Ones were hiding here?”

With Melog in tow, the two raced down the staircase to the second floor to explore the other rooms. As the door of the communications room closed, a window on the terminal opened up with a call from a young, blond man.

“This is Command Outpost Bravado, are you there?” The man saw the room was empty. “Hello! This is Command Outpost Bravado! Do you read? Princess Adora, are you there? Adora!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wrote the this and chapter 3 in about 6 hours so hopefully it came out okay? I wanted a chance for Bow and Glimmer to do some character development on their own. It was a hard decision to break up the Best Friend Squad road trip, but life gets in the way sometimes, and duty calls. It might be temporary, haven't really figured that out yet. I didn't want Etheria to just be a flat, absent thing in the background. They still got problems to deal with back home! Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle might come into the picture eventually >:3 I do love them. Also, yes, you can guess who I'm bringing into this and I have every intention of using it to continue the show's theme of breaking down toxic tropes >:) >:)


End file.
